4.7: Expanding Democracy
4.7: Explain the causes and effects of the expansion of participatory democracy from 1800 to 1848.
In the last set of notes, we went over the Market Revolution in the United States and now, we’re going to be moving on to the spread and expansion of democracy in the country from 1800 to 1848. Essentially, during this period, democracy, along with who was able to participate in it, expanded, and as a result this time period became known as the Era of the Common Man.
The Expansion of Democracy
There were several factors that led to democracy expanding. In 1819, a financial crisis swept across the United States known as the Panic of 1819. During this time, many state banks had closed due to the Second Bank of the United States limiting loans. Many people also became unemployed in the years leading up to 1819, leading to them going bankrupt and falling into debt. As a result, many Americans wanted to be able to vote in order to hold politicians accountable for the crisis. In addition, the new states in the west had already established universal suffrage for men, allowing any male to vote regardless of whether or not they owned property. The people on the East Coast wanted this to spread to them as well because they were only allowed to vote if they did own property.
Democratic-Republicans
After the War of 1812, the Democratic-Republicans had become the dominant political party in the United States. However, the Democratic-Republicans eventually split into two new parties. The first was the National Republicans, who essentially replaced the Federalists and believed that federal power and the Constitution should be interpreted broadly. This belief was called loose constructionism. In contrast, the second party, the Democrats, believed in limited federal power and strict constructionism, the concept that the government should only be allowed to do what was clearly stated in the Constitution. However, before the Election of 1824, this split into two parties had not been official yet.
The Election of 1824 and John Quincy Adams
As a result of differing beliefs among the Democratic-Republicans, they were unable to agree on a single presidential candidate in 1824 and instead nominated four candidates for voting: John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson. Although Jackson won the most votes, none of them had won a majority in the Electoral College, which meant that the new president would then be chosen by the House of Representatives. However, Clay was a member of the House and used his influence to get his allies to vote for Adams, resulting in Adams being elected as president. Adams then made Clay his Secretary of State. Jackson, who won the most popular votes and Electoral College votes, but failed to get a majority in either, was furious and it was this event that formally split the Democratic-Republicans and solidified their separation into two separate parties.
Once John Quincy Adams became president though, he did almost nothing with regard to domestic affairs because he was very unpopular with the people (because remember, he didn’t win the most votes, Jackson did). This allowed Martin Van Buren, an ally of Jackson, to take control of the House of Representatives and Senate and essentially block most of Adams’ initiatives. By the time the Election of 1828 arrived, Jackson won the election with 178 electoral votes compared to Adams’ 83.
So by the mid-1820s, the property requirement for voting was removed. In addition, political nominating conventions were established, which established the ways that candidates for political office would be nominated. Along with that, all states (except for South Carolina) established the use of popular election, meaning that now, voters got to choose their Electoral College electors based on a majority vote, instead of state legislature controlling it. And because now, there were a lot more new voters, political parties began changing and realigning.
